‘Sooner’ coming to Hoosier Theater
April 8th

On Saturday, April 8th at 7 p.m., Vevay’s Historic Hoosier Theater will be hosting a Grand Opening Premiere to celebrate the start of its monthly movie nights.

It’s been over 75 years since movies have been shown at the Hoosier Theater and everyone is invited all to come and enjoy the excitement.

The premiere will feature the one and only movie ever filmed in Vevay – ‘A Girl Names Sooner’. Many locals were featured as extras in the film.

Advance ticket sales are $3, and are available at the Switzerland County Visitors Center at 128 West Main Street in Vevay; call (812) 427-3237; or visit www.switzcotourism.com.

The new and improved Historic Hoosier Theater was originally built in 1837. It is one of the oldest commercial structures in downtown Vevay.

As if it knew that it would be reborn as a theater, upon whose stage would be enacted comedies, tragedies, musicals, and every type of live theater entertainment, the building itself has worn many faces.

Originally built as a warehouse and store, designed to serve the thriving river traffic of the time, it has since housed a saddlery, the local post office, the offices of the Vevay newspapers, and even a tavern.

It became a building for popular entertainment in 1926, when Minor Bakes purchased the building and converted it into a movie theater. When the movie theater closed in 1955, it remained unoccupied for much of the next 28 years, awaiting its “reawakening”.

A forward thinking group of residents, business leaders and community organizations (now known as “Historic Vevay, Inc”) contributed their time, expertise and money to rejuvenate this multifaceted old building in 1983. Four years later, a newly renovated “Hoosier Theater” gave the community its first theatrical presentation in over 30 years.

‘A Girl Named Sooner’ is about a young girl in the hills of Indiana, who had been abandoned by her family and raised by a bootlegging old woman, is taken by the authorities and made the ward of a childless couple. The film was shot in Vevay and starred Lee Remick, Richard Crenna, Don Murray and Cloris Leachman. The movie was released in 1975.